Amped: Digidesign Eleven Rack

Guitar recording and live processing system 22-Dec-09

The new Eleven Rack Hardware Guitar Porcessor from Digidesign has been getting a lot of coverage since it was announced in November. With its DSP powered amp and pedal simulations, the fact that it works as the interface with ProTools LE - it comes bundled with LE 8 makes it a self contained guitar recording system.

However, for those who don't work in that world, Eleven Rack works as a stand-alone guitar processor integrating with your existing amp so and pedals for live work - just hoik it out of the studio rack and into your live one, complete with tuners and many other goodies.

Supports up to 8 simultaneous channels of high-resolution recording up to 24-bit/96 kHz

Stereo balanced XLR outputs and dedicated 1/4” outputs

XLR mic input with 48V phantom power and pad switch

2 x 1/4” line-level inputs

AES/EBU and S/PDIF digital I/O

Stereo 1/4” headphone jack

1 x 1 MIDI I/O

Our resident axe wielding maniac Rob Chappers aka The Monkey Lord, took a look at Eleven Rack from a live point of view - being the "valves and cloth front" kinda guy he is, we thought it would be interesting to confront him with this virtual reality guitar setup.

6 Comments...Comments are closed while we transition to DisqusShadyDave Said...

Might I just say:

Great review Great product Manflulol :)

Did you do any recording with it at all? Would be interesting to get some feedback on using it for that purpose.

Get well soon!

23-Dec-09 01:51 PM

Mojo292 Said...

Well done review mate! It's a piece of WIN for sure. Give that manflu a swift kick and have a Happy Christmas!

24-Dec-09 03:10 AM

ZuccheroMorte Said...

Like the idea behind the product and the review. Just one question though! Where is the bottom end? I have watched EVERY review and post and blog I can find by Mr.Chappers here and I have to say that the sound of this video is lacking. I hope that is why the guitars come across as tinny and processed, and not because the signal was compressed by the unit. If you have the chance to adjust the sound I'd love to hear this one again. Get well soon!

29-Dec-09 06:27 PM

AMRAyw Said...

if you watch the videos provided by digidesign (the ones with the guy with the orange guitar in the wood room), particularly the one about live setup, he talks about and demonstrates that when plugging into a guitar combo the 11rack should be set to EXCLUDE amp emulation, as you're running into a guitar amp with it's own character anyway... apparently if you don't do this it results in a thin and phasey sound, which I'm afraid (to my ears) it sounds like Rob may not have done(??) I'd like to know, because I agree with ZuccheroMorte that this vid is lacking sonically against Chapper's other fine work in the past. If he DID get the settings right, I am underwhelmed by the sound of the 11rack, which is a dissapointment.